Friday, June 29, 2012

Before we left for this trip, I took an overdue trip to the garden I share with another family to see how the spring had treated it. Turns out: really well. How is your garden growing?

Here's a little tour through mine in June:

I planted these garlic bulbs last fall and had no idea how it would turn out. I bought them, probably too many of them, as a splurge from Territorial Seed Company when I was buying row covers anyhow and thought I'd throw in something fun. I tucked them in pretty much everywhere.

Well, one of Sam's and my favoritest spring treats is garlic scapes – the tender tips of the garlic plants. Imagine my surprise when I headed over to the garden and saw a bucketload of garlic scapes, all (past) ready for harvest! How did I not realize what a bounty I'd be producing for myself? (This picture is post-scape snipping.)

Since we were leaving on this long trip just a few days after the harvest, we ate a lot of garlic scapes that week. Garlic scapes sauteed with other veggies, with Landjäger sausage, with parsnips and carrots, with pasta and ground meat. It was a good, garlicky week.

These scallions were another successful overwintering. I love spring harvests — they feel like bonuses!

This spinach sure is happy! I got a lot of leaves from these plants and left plenty more for when we get back.

These cabbages are growing nicely. There's something so pretty and satisfying about the whorls. Must be the math of the spirals.

The strawberry plot Sybil planted is thriving. It's a toss-up every year whether slugs or humans get more of the berries, but I'm glad to see that the scales are likely tipping in our favor, due to how many berries are ripening.

I want to apologize for the phone photos, because this day was the foreshadowing that something is very wrong with my phone. It keeps randomly shutting off, such as when I'm trying to take photos (or, you know, use the phone), so I wasn't able to get the best shots — just whatever shots I could grab before it once again went nighty-nights. I know it's super boring to hear someone talk about the pictures they wanted to get and blah blah blah, but seriously, I was trying to get more and different shots, and it didn't happen. And who cares. Ha ha.

I was uncertain if it was worth growing kohlrabi. It's one of those garden veggies that seems somewhat wasteful to me, on a space to yield ratio. But it sounded like fun, so I threw it into the mix this year.

Oh. my. golly. Am I ever glad I did! Now I just wish I'd devoted more space to this yumminess. Sam chopped it up, and we ate it as raw spears. Just … ate it. Yum. I am determined that it needs to replace carrot spears in veggie-and-dip platters. How cool would you be to have kohlrabi spears instead? Pretty cool, that's what.

This is another fun experiment this year: artichokes! I'll have to let you know how it turns out. The leaves are surprisingly jagged, huh?

Celery. Nom nom nom. If you have never had celery fresh from your garden, you have no idea what celery can taste like. I like store-bought celery, but garden-fresh celery … there's no comparison. With some peanut butter smeared on, it was my go-to pregnancy craving. I'm not pregnant this summer, but that doesn't mean I can't crave it again.

This is another example of a terrible photo I couldn't retake. See what I mean? Of course, you do. And of course, you still don't care. But I am compelled.

Is anything better than fresh sugar snap peas? Clearly not, so we can stop any debating on the issue. Sam's lucky if any of those crispy treats make it from my hand to the bag to bring home instead of just straight into my mouth. That profusion of blooms behind is my perennial flower patch. It is wild and woolly! I keep adding some and taking away swaths, but whatever wants to just grows back.

We have blueberries this year! I am so thrilled, because we've been waiting two long years for the bush to fruit.

I really wanted to retake this picture to be in focus. Just saying.

Walla Walla sweet onions. Mmmmmm. These babies are so good raw in recipes, such as pico de gallo.

I didn't capture our herb area, where I dug up some mutant monster carroty things, and admired and grabbed some cilantro before it bolts. I also wanted to get a picture of Mikko helping me water the beds, just as it was about to rain. (He's helpful like that.) He also helped me dig holes to plant in the tomatoes, another picture missing.

But here's to many future harvests this summer (if summer ever gets going here in the Pacific Northwest!).

What does your garden look like? What have you planted, and what have you harvested already?

We always eat that part of a garlic plant too, I had no idea it had a name! Garlic is so easy to grow, my kind of gardening, we have grown it for the past eight years and have not bought any garlic bulbs in that time.

Looking good! [I just typoed "food," which is also true. =] The cabbage spirals are really beautiful, aren't they? And I'm inspired by your variety! I'd like to get a wider selection going in my garden next Summer.

read my books

sign up for hobo mama news

meet hobo mama

Riding the rails with my husband, Crackerdog Sam, and our hobo kids, Mikko Lint Picker (born June 2007), Alrik Irontrousers (born May 2011), and one on the way (coming October 2014). Trying every day to parent intentionally and with grace.